title: Certainty versus uncertainty in psychiatric diagnosis.
abstract: Although the usefulness of making a formal diagnosis in helping an individual deal with his/her 'problems' continues to be debated in all areas of medicine--"Il n'y a pas de maladies; il n'y a que des malades"--it is generally accepted that the initial interaction between doctor/healer/therapist and patient/client will consist of an attempt to fit the problem into one or more categories, to develop a diagnostic formulation. In the search for specificity and scientific accuracy increasingly sophisticated methods of selecting criteria have been developed to allow the assignment of a diagnosis. Examples will be given that even in the field of general medicine, a hierarchy of certainty versus uncertainty has to be accepted if potentially dangerous diagnostic errors are to be avoided. A similar approach has been proposed as a means of improving the decision making process in psychiatry. In the course of an epidemiological investigation into the prevalence of psychopathology among residents of longterm institutions, a simplified categorization into certain or suspected diagnoses is described. A semi-structured screening interview was developed for the study and will be discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Ottawa, School of Medicine, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: H F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Reichenfeld
mesh_terms: D003704:Dementia / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications